Two markets, side by side
The median one bedroom starts at $1,167 in Buda and $1,149 in Austin. The drive to downtown Austin is 42 minutes from here and 28 from there. Each column below comes from our daily price check in that market, with its own date.
Nobody moves for rent alone and nobody moves for the drive alone. Here they are together, on the same size of home, from the same week.
Cheaper in Austin at the one bedroom size, or $216 across a year.
Longer to downtown Austin from the median Buda community. On a five day commute, about 117 hours a year more in the car.
Put the two together and the trade is about $2 for every extra hour in the car. Whether that is a good trade is yours to judge, and it is the reason this page stops here instead of telling you which to pick.
The lowest advertised rent for each size, from our daily price check. A size shows a dash where too few communities carry that size to make a median mean anything.
| Size | Buda | Austin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studiotoo few here, 255 there | n/a | $1,195 | n/a |
| One bedroom9 here, 881 there | $1,167 | $1,149 | +$18 |
| Two bedroom10 here, 886 there | $1,575 | $1,537 | +$38 |
| Three bedroom8 here, 443 there | $2,166 | $1,999 | +$167 |
| Four bedroomtoo few here, 48 there | n/a | $2,399 | n/a |
A figure in the difference column is what you would pay on top in Austin. Green means Buda is the cheaper of the two at that size.
| Cheapest starting rent | $1,001 | $700 |
|---|---|---|
| Running a special | 85% | 53% |
| Weeks free where offered | 8.4 | 7.1 |
Where these came from
The Buda column comes from our daily price check, banked on 2026-11-07. The Austin column comes from our price check in that market, banked on 2026-11-06. Both draw on apartment data we pay for, records our team keeps and daily property research. Drive times are one reading with live traffic, last measured 2026-09-09. Bought data can include the seller's own estimates, which is why each column shows its date.
At the one bedroom size, the median starting rent is $1,167 here against $1,149 there, so the gap is $18 a month the other way. Both come out of our daily price check, ours dated 2026-11-07 and theirs 2026-11-06.
The median community here is 42 minutes out and the median one there is 28, so 14 minutes more each way. On a five day commute that is roughly 117 hours a year more in the car.
From our daily price check in that market, which draws on the same kinds of sources as ours: apartment data we buy, records our team keeps and property research we do each day. Every number carries the day it ran. Neither column is a national average, and a figure from the data we buy can be that company's estimate.
This page will not tell you. The honest answer turns on what an hour of your evening is worth, and no dataset holds that. What we can do is walk both markets with you and say which specific buildings are worth your time. That part is free.